Designers of modern, high performance piston devices such as internal combustion engines and piston expanders, for example, are confronted by many engineering challenges not the least of which includes achieving desired fluid flow rates into, and out of the piston chamber, especially at high speeds (revolution/RPM). High speed piston-cylinder operation is primarily limited by valve opening time and valve area. As the speed of the piston-cylinder device is increased the valve lift is, of necessity, smaller. Valve actuation forces are also of concern in that high actuation forces have a negative effect on operating efficiency. In internal combustion engines, four-valve applications have substantial advantages over two-valve designs in terms of the valve area as it relates to the piston bore area. The addition of more valves has proven to be advantageous from a mass air flow perspective. However, additional valves significantly increase the complexity, size, cost and mass of the valve train. In addition, the application of multiple valves has introduced issues related to flow and motion caused by the introduction of separate flow streams into the piston chamber.